True Luck
by Vu Vu
Summary: Living alone since he was born, Naruto forged bonds to escape the hell that was his childhood. Watch these bonds grow.
1. Prologue

True Luck

Prologue Chapter – Who needs to trust?

_Italics_ - Thoughts

8 year old Uzumaki Naruto was discharged out of the hospital once again after another assassination attempt on his life. It wasn't like he really needed to be there, but when one of the few people that didn't hate him, found the unconscious kid laying on the ground, they just instinctively brought him there. Fortunately, no one at the hospital hated the kid, so they allowed him to rest until he regained consciousness and his wounds healed up.

_Ugh, not again, I hate my birthday._

Every October 10th, several incidents would always occur and always landed Naruto into the hospital. Unfortunately, Naruto had a huge heart, but he would never strike anyone back to their face, and with huge angry mobs chasing him all the time, someone would always land a lucky hit on him somehow.

He walked into his apartment and noticed all the power was out. Sighing, he went to the landlord's door and knocked to see what was happening.

"Sir, the power is out in my apartment, I was wondering if you knew what was wrong."

"Yeah, you were late with your rent this month, so I cut off all your power as punishment."

"I see...ok, sorry to bother you."

Naruto walked back into his small apartment and let out a long tired sigh. He had no where else to go. No one else would let him rent out a place to live that he could afford with the little help he could get from not being able to work.

_That's it! I'm going to be a ninja so that I can start making money and find somewhere else to live._

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9 year old Naruto was enthusiastically walking to the academy ready to take the academy test. Sure, no teacher would give him any kind of help, but he was going to try and pass this test with his will and determination.

He entered the testing room and sat down in the back of the room to avoid any kind of attention to himself. An instructor appeared and introduced himself as the proctor of the first genin exams and they would need to be able to pass the written exams to continue to graduation.

Naruto's eyes widened to the thought of a written exam. He never learned anything from any of the instructors, but the worse part was, no one taught him how to read kanji to even try to fake his way through this test.

With tears streaming down his eyes, he quietly stood up and exited the classroom.

111111111111111111111111111111111111111

12 year old Naruto walked back to the academy for his 3rd try in graduation. These last 3 years have been tough on Naruto, with teaching himself how to read and write and seeing what jutsu were needed in the academy to graduate. As he entered the exam room for the first test, a few people recognized him and started to talk amongst themselves.

"Isn't that Naruto? Didn't he fail the test for the past 3 years?"

"Yeah, I can't believe he is going to try again."

Naruto ignored the comments. _If I didn't have to teach myself everything and didn't spend half my time in the fucking hospital, I would have graduated already._

Sitting down next to the few people that he was acquainted to this year, he waited for the test to begin.

"Oy, Naruto, good luck alright?" He turned around and saw a blond girl, that he recognized as Ino Yamanaka, smile at him.

"He doesn't need luck Ino, he'll be fine." Next to Ino was a pink haired girl, Sakura Haruno.

"G..Good luck, N-n-naruto-kun." Hinata Hyuga was sitting in front of him, and took the time to turn around to wish him luck.

"Thanks ladies, I just have to focus and I'll be okay."

"Quit being so cocky Uzumaki, you need to do perfect on this test just to pass." Kiba stated as-a-matter-factually.

Naruto frowned at that statement, but before he could make any kind of retort, Iruka walked into the room to begin the test.

111111111111111111111111111111111111111

"Alright, now for the final test of genin exams, we will need you to produce a _Bunshin _to complete."

_Shit! a Bunshin no Jutsu? I suck at that technique!_

Naruto's name was called and he stepped up in front of the class. He concentrated his chakra for the jutsu...

"Bunshin no Jutsu!"

5 different looking clones popped up, but they all looked ill. 1 was completely fat and laying on its back, 1 was skin and bones, 1 was miss its arms, and the last 2 were laying on top of each other with dead looks on their face.

"Fuck!"

"I'm sorry Naruto, but you failed. These aren't complete clones."

"But Iruka-sensei!"

"I'm sorry Naruto, those are the rules of the exams."

Naruto looked down and started to walk out of the exam room but a hand grabbed his shoulder, effectively stopping him.

"Iruka-sensei, why don't we pass him, he did well on the other tests, and he DID make a few clones."

"Mizuki-sensei, you know the rules, I can't pass him."

Mizuki walked Naruto out and stopped him before he could walk out of the academy.

"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry that you failed the exams."

"It's okay Mizuki-sensei, I'll just have to try again next year."

"Well, what if I told you another way you can pass the exams and graduate this year?"

"What? How? Why wasn't this method offered to me the last 2 years that I failed?"

"Well, I can see that you know enough to pass, but you need to find a way to cover up the lack of talent you have with creating a Bunshin properly."

"Hmm, okay, what do I need to do?"

"Well, Fuinjutsu is very potent. If you can get your hands on the Scroll of Sealing, and learn one of the jutsu's that are in the scroll, you can impress Iruka-sensei with it and he'll pass you."

111111111111111111111111111111111111111

"Iruka-sensei, there you are! I learned a jutsu from this scroll so you can pass me!"

"Naruto, who told you that?"

"Mizuki-sensei, of course, he told me that he would tell you what I was doing. He even told me where it was and what to look for."

Confused at the turn of events, Iruka was momentarily stunned until he felt a small amount of killer intent behind them. Quickly pushing Naruto out of the way, Iruka was impaled by kunai and flew back a few feet from the force.

"Naruto! Give me the scroll!" Mizuki demanded

"Wait, what the hell is going on?"

Pulling the last kunai off his body, Iruka didn't release his gaze from Mizuki, "Naruto, whatever you do, don't give him the scroll. That scroll contains forbidden jutsu's that should not have been given out. Mizuki used you so you could get a hold of it for him."

Mizuki smirked at Iruka, "Naruto, Iruka doesn't want you to have that scroll because he doesn't trust you."

"What the fuck are you talking about Mizuki!"

"Haha, Naruto, I will tell you truth. 12 years ago, a rule was created because of you."

"Mizuki, shut the fuck up!"

"Its a rule that pertains specifically you, Naruto. Its the rule to not say that you, Naruto, are the monster fox."

"Monster fox?"

"In other words, Naruto, you are the Kyuubi who killed Iruka's parents and destroyed Konoha."

Seeing the shock look on Naruto's face, Mizuki continued, "Didn't you think it was weird why everyone hated you so much, why no one wanted to be your friend? No one will ever recognize you as a person."

Naruto looked down, and dropped to his knees, tears flowing freely down his face. _No way...that's why I've been so alone?_

Mizuki took this chance to throw a few shuriken at Naruto, but before they hit their target, Iruka had stepped in front of him and took all the damage onto himself. Noticing that Iruka had taken the hit for him, Naruto looked up in shock at Iruka's face, "Why did you do that?"

"Because, Naruto, you were the same as me. When my parents died, no one ever noticed me. I was also a bad student, and had to teach myself everything. It was so tough..."

Naruto continued to look in shock at Iruka's confession as tears were falling from his face, "Right Naruto, you were so lonely too? You wouldn't have had to feel that way if I had taken the time to spend with you."

Mizuki took this time to interject, "Naruto, he's lying to you. Iruka hates you because you took his parents away. He just wants to get the scroll back."

Naruto didn't know what to believe. _I can't trust anyone. Everyone has always wanted to hurt me, and now I know why._

Without speaking another word, he got up, turned around and ran away.

Running for a few minutes, he finally got a chance to calm down and stopped behind a tree to try and collect his thoughts. _Fuck, I can't believe it. I didn't ask for this, why do people hate me, what did I ever do?_

Before he could try and think or do anything else, he heard someone approach. Realizing that it was Mizuki and Iruka, he was even more surprised to see them fighting.

"Why are protecting the one that killed your parents?"

"You asshole, you think I'm going to allow you to get that scroll."

"It doesn't matter if I get it or not, Naruto will use that scroll to exact revenge on the village. I won't even get in trouble."

"I guess you're right, Mizuki." Naruto's eyes widened at Iruka's confessions. _I knew he didn't care about me!_

But before Naruto could get up and run again, Iruka continued his statement, "IF he was the Kyuubi."

Stunned at the revelation, Naruto had opted to settle where he was, "Naruto is different. Even with all the short comings that he has lived through, he is a bright student that I recognize as hard working and bright. He has the biggest heart of anyone. He isn't the Kyuubi, he is Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha!"

"I guess I will have to kill you to make sure you keep your mouth shut huh?!"

Mizuki charged towards Iruka taking advantage of Iruka's vulnerability at the moment. However, before he got halfway, an arm reached out towards Mizuki's neck effectively close-lining him backwards.

"Don't you dare touch Iruka-sensei, I'll kill you if you do."

Getting up and dusting himself off, "Try it you monster fox, I'll beat the shit out of you!"

"I only managed to learn this technique from that scroll you made me steal, I think its appropriate if I use it against you. _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

Surrounding the entire area around Iruka and Mizuki filled up with shadow clones. "Seeing how you liked throwing kunai's at Iruka-sensei, I think I should return the favor!" All the clones withdrew a kunai from their poach and threw them all at the shocked Mizuki. Iruka looked in shock at what was happening to Mizuki. As all the clones, dispelled, Naruto turned around to look at his sensei and smiled.

"Are you alright Iruka-sensei? Don't worry, I didn't hit any vital spots, so he should be alright, as long as he's not a little bitch."

Smirking at Naruto's remark, he asked Naruto to come over to him so he could give him his Konoha headband.

"Okay, open your eyes. Congratulations, Naruto, you graduate."


	2. Team 7

True Luck

Chapter 1 – Team 7

_Italics_ – Thoughts

Getting his ninja registration form completed proved to be easier than he thought it would. Normally he would have to jump through a bunch of different hoops and nag his way to getting a document completed. It seems that word spread that Naruto single-handedly defeated a chuunin for the village, cause there were a few people congratulating him on capturing Mizuki when he was in the registration office.

Meeting the Hokage's grandson was a humorous sight, with him tripping over himself and blaming it on an invisible enemy. Chuckling at the memory, he entered Yamanaka's Flower Shop.

"Welcome to Yamanaka's Flower Shop, how can...oh hi Naruto."

"Hello Yamanaka-san, I was wondering if I could grab these 3 bundles of flowers."

Inoichi noticed the headband on Naruto, "Congrats my boy, it looks like you graduated!"

"Thank you Yamanaka-san, I wanted to give one of these bundles to Ino to congratulate her on graduating also." Naruto held out the violet looking bundle in front of Inoichi.

_Oh, well that's sweet. _"Oh! Well I'll make sure to give it to her, I think she's out with some friends at the moment. And please, call me Inoichi."

"Okay...Inoichi-san. Thank you for helping me out" Naruto grabbed the other 2 bundles and exited the store walking towards the Hyuga compound.

* * *

Approaching the entrance of the Hyuga compound, he was met by one of the guards in front and asked what he needed.

"I was wondering if Hinata was here, I have something to give her."

"Oh, all of the Hyuga's are in a meeting, can I ask you to come back later or give her a message?"

"Oh, no, I just wanted to give her these flowers to congratulate her on graduating." Naruto handed the guard one of the bundles that he was holding.

"Ah, of course, I'll make sure she gets them when they're done with their meeting."

"Thank you sir. Have a good evening." Naruto politely bowed before leaving.

_Hmm, nice kid._

* * *

The last place Naruto needed to go was Sakura's to give her her flowers. Stepping in front of their door, he knocked on the door while holding the flowers in front of him. Hearing no answer, he wondered what he should do, he couldn't just leave them on the floor. He got a sudden idean

_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! _He handed the clone the flowers and instructed it to wait until someone came home to give Sakura the flowers.

About 30 minutes later, Sakura and her parents came home from dinner to see Naruto standing at their door. "Hey Naruto, what are you doing here?"

Suprised at the sudden voice, Naruto-clone looked up to see the Harunos, "Oh hey Saku-chan, I wanted to give you these flowers as congrats for graduating."

"Aww, thats sweet, but I hope you didn't wait here for too long?"

Naruto-clone chuckled. "Oh, its okay, I'm a clone that boss made to make sure you got your present."

Before Sakura could say thanks, the clone dispelled itself.

_Wow, that was a solid clone?_

* * *

Sitting at Ichiraku's Ramen stand, Naruto stopped chewing mid-bowl, noticing that he knew that that Sakura had gotten the flowers.

_What the hell was that? Hmmmm... _

Finishing up his dinner, he quickly paid off his bill, said bye to Ayame, and headed outside.

_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! _10 clones appeared and Naruto face-faulted.

_Damnit, I only meant to make 1 of well. _"Alright, you guys know what I want you to do. Remember, 15 seconds."

The 10 clones, turned around and walked away in different directions and 15 seconds later, they turned a corner and dispelled.

Naruto's eyes widened as images flooded his head of the 10 different sights that his clones saw. _Wow, thats...interesting...I can do a lot of fun stuff with this._

Smiling at this sudden realization, Naruto headed back to his apartment to get ready for the next day.

* * *

For the first time in a long time, Naruto was happy to walk to the academy. He could finally earn money in a legit way and finally fullfil his dream.

Walking through the entrance of the academy, he spotted Hinata waiting for him. Seeing Naruto come, she approached him with her hands behind her back.

"Naruto-kun! Thank you for the flowers." Hinata's face was flushed as she was talking to him.

"Of course, you helped me with studing, so I just wanted to thank you for it." Naruto flashed her a sweet smile before ushering her into the room.

"I really didn't help you that much Naruto-kun, I am glad that you passed though." She walked over to an empty seat, but before Naruto could follow her, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

Turning around, he saw Sakura looking at him with a smile on her faces. "Naruto-kun, thank you for the flowers, they were beautiful."

"You're welcome. I just wanted to congratulate my best friend on graduating, and for making school bearable for me."

"Haha, when you would actually show up you lazy baka. But I didn't know you passed, what happened? And what was up with that clone you left at my place?"

"Oh, Iruka-sensei, passed me after the exams because of that that jutsu I learned. Its a solid clone, so it was good enough for him." Naruto explained. Looking into the class, "You should hurry up and sit next to Sasuke before someone else takes that seat."

Sakura rushed over to sit next to Sasuke, "Naru-kun!" Naruto turned around once again to see Ino. "Thank you for my flowers, my dad told me you graduated. You didn't...DO anything did you?"

"Haha, no Ino-chan, I didn't steal anything. I just wanted to give my PARTNER some flowers as a congrats on graduating." Naruto winked at the term 'partner', that lead to a slight blush. "Well lets get inside before we get in trouble for being late."

Agreeing, they both went into the classroom and sat down as Iruka came walking in.

"Alright, good job everyone sitting in this classroom for passing the final exams. This is your first step into being a full fledged member as a shinobi. Everyone will be separated into 3 man squads with a jounin instructor to lead your team. You will all be divided depending on your grades to ensure there is a balance between the teams."

Naruto smiled at the chance to hear about his team, and the first few teams announced were of people that he didn't know. "Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Team 8 will consist of Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. Team 10 will consist of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji."

_Well at least I know where my friends are at. I gotta make sure I keep in touch with them._ Naruto made sure to memorize the teams his friends were on.

"And thats it for the teams. You will wait for your jounin instructor and they will be giving you directions from now on."

Naruto walked up to Hinata's teams, "Hey guys, its good that you guys are all in the same group huh?"

Kiba had a confused look at his remark, "What you do you mean?"

"Well, you guys all know each other and all your clan's skills compliment each other."

"How do you know our clan's skills, Uzumaki-san?"

"Shino, please don't be so formal with me, I can't stand it. But to answer your question, just because you never told us, did you really think I didn't know you weren't the heir to your clan, Shino?" Naruto smirked at the raised eye-brow Shino gave him.

"I see."

"Well, I just wanted to ask you guys to take care of Hinata. She's a close friend of mine, and I would hate to see anything happen to her." Naruto's eyes narrowed at both Kiba and Shino.

"Haha, of course Naruto. We'll take good care of her."

"Thanks, Kiba." Naruto then began to walk over to Ino's group.

"Hey guys, kinda funny to see you in the same group huh?"

Shikamaru sighed, "I bet they just thought it'd be funny to see the next Ino-Shika-Cho group."

Naruto chuckled at the joke, "Well, take care of them Chouji." Chouji grunted in agreement as he continued to eat his chips. Naruto walked back to his group.

"Saku-chan, aren't you glad with the group?" Naruto hinted at Sasuke as he asked her that question.

Blushing, "Yeah, it should be a fun group, ne, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn."

* * *

The scene changes to Naruto's apartment where Sarutobi and Kakashi are seen talking.

"So this is Naruto's home? There's nothing here, no power or nothing."

"Hmm, I honestly don't know what that kid has been up to these last couple of years. I tried to keep an eye on him, but he keeps disappearing when I manage to track him down."

"Oh? He manages to keep on evading people huh?"

"Yeah, and you have the Uchiha on your team too. Looks like you're going to have a handful with these children."

* * *

They all met later at the classroom waiting for their sensei. Sasuke arrived first, and Sakura and Naruto came at the same time.

"I wonder who our sensei is going to be." Sakura asked in general to try and break to ice.

"Well, lets hope its someone really strong, eh Sasuke?"

"Hn."

They both sweat-dropped at his reply.

"Hey Sasuke, what are you planning on doing once we start doing missions together, ignore us the whole time?"

"Naru-kun, quit instigating a fight with Sasuke-kun."

"Look, just don't slow me down." Sasuke replied without even giving them any kind of eye-contact.

Naruto stopped trying to talk to Sasuke and placed a chalk board eraser between the door crack at the top so it would fall on any unsuspecting person. He also seemingly pulled a box out of no where and placed it on the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, ya know, just some things that I do best."

"Hn, a jounin wouldn't fall for some prank." Just as he finished his statement, the door open and the eraser fell, but before it could hit its intended target, an arm shot up and caught it in mid air.

"You really think you can..." was all he could manage to get out as a pie sprung out of the box on the ground and hit him in the face.

"Bwahaha, got ya!" Naruto laughed, while Sakura snickered at the successful prank. Holding his hand up, he counted down, "3,2,1."

"AHHH! What the fuck, my eyes are burning!"

As both Naruto and Sakura were laughing, a pop could be heard and a log appeared where the man was standing.

"Huh? Kawarimi no jutsu?" Sakura asked figuring out what had happened.

"Yo." They all turned around to see Kakashi safely on the ledge of the window, but before he could step in, a bucket of slime fell on him.

Even Sasuke had to snicker at sucessfully pranking the man. Wiping himself off, Naruto pointed at him, "Thats what you get for being late."

"Hmm, alright, lets go to the roof where theres a little bit more space." In truth, he wanted to get out of the room for fear there was another trap laying somewhere.

* * *

"Alright, now there we're here, lets all introduce ourselves."

"Hey, since you were late, why don't you go first sensei?"

"Me? Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dreams...Well, I have a few hobbies."

"What the... all we found out was his name!"

"Well then, you in the bright orange, you first."

"Well, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen. I dislike mean people. My hobbies are pranking people. And as far as my dream, I want to be the greatest Hokage ever!"

"Well that certainly is interesting. Pinky, you're next."

A tick mark appeared on Sakura's head, but she decided to introduce herself anyways. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like having fun with my friends. I hate being ignored. I don't have any real hobbies, but my dream is to make sure I fall in love with someone great!'

Kakashi started chuckling, "I see, and now lastly, you?"

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are many things I dislike, and not many things I like. I don't have just a dream, its an ambition, the revival of the Uchiha clan and to...kill a certain man."

"I see, well, you 3 all have interesting personalities. That will make things very interesting for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow sensei?"

"Survival training."

"Training? Didn't we get enough of that at the academy?"

Laughing out loud, Kakashi didn't answer Sakura's question.

"What's so funny about what I asked sensei?"

"Well, I'm sure you guys are going to laugh when I say this, but, out of the 27 graduates, only 9 are able to stay as genins. The remaining 18 are sent back to the academy for another year. So in essence, it is a test that I will be conducting with a 66% failure rate."

"What? We took the final test yesterday!" Naruto yelled at the prospect of having the repeat again.

"Well, that test only ensures that you qualify to be a genin. My test will determine if you are going to be one or not."

"What?!"

"Well I will be testing you tomorrow. Make sure you bring your equipment and be there at 5 am. Well thats all I have." Kakashi stood up and before he leaves, he turns around and narrows his eyes, " Oh yeah, don't eat breakfast. You'll throw it up."

_Fuck that. I didn't fail the last 2 years to fail again now. I won't ever fail another test. I'll do whatever it takes._

* * *

AN: There's a lot of unanswered questions in this chapter that will be answered soon. Especially Naruto's relationship with the 3 female members of his graduating class. And there's gonna be some flashbacks explaining about Naruto's past. I absolutely love the prankster mentality that Naruto had and wanna make some of his actions reflect that.

Review? :D


	3. Bonds That Guide Us

True Luck

Chapter 2 – Bonds that guide us

_Italics_ – Thoughts

After being, released from the team meeting, the 3 members decided to take their separate ways so they can let what Kakashi tell them to settle. They all refused to fail and go back to the academy. Naruto took the time to walk around to clear his head.

After walking around for an hour, he found himself in front of Yamanaka's Flower Shop and decided to walk in to talk to Ino.

"Welcome to Yamanaka's Flow...oh hey Naru-kun, what are you doing here?"

"Hey Ino, I was just wandering around and wanted to come by and tell you about the prank I pulled on our new sensei!"

"Oh yeah, what did you do?"

"Well, I set up a 4 stage trap, but it seems that I only needed to use 3 of them." Naruto stated proudly.

"Haha, what did he fall for?"

"The slime bucket. I didn't get the chance to get him to step on the poop."

"Naru!, That's gross that you carry it around."

"Ino-chan, I sealed it up properly, jeez. Besides, he was super late, so I decided that he deserved it."

"Well, lets hear what you did."

"You weren't there to help me out, so I hid the pie box after making an obvious trap. Then the only other entry into the room was the window, so I placed the slime bucket there in case he was cocky enough to avoid my first 2 traps. If he had avoided that, he would have jumped in and the only place to step in was the poop I left."

"Aww man, I wish I was there to see it!" Ino threw her arms up in excitement. "It's always fun to prank with you."

* * *

Flashback to a few years ago

We see 9 year old Ino and Naruto running away into an alley before hiding in the shadows. They can be both seen breathing heavily and desperately trying to catch their breath.

"Naru, we're gonna get caught!" Ino whispered into Naruto's ear.

"Shh, be quiet Ino, we won't get caught, I left 2 false trails before we even started." Naruto started to explain, but then grabbed her hand and pulled her deeper into the alley. "Follow me and we'll be okay."

Trusting him completely, she followed him to a drainage where they leapt in.

"Eww, it smells here." Ino pinched her nose to illustrate her distaste to the smell.

"Come on, we've never gotten caught before, and I don't plan on getting caught now."

"I know, I know. I still can't believe we got away with sneaking inside the Hyuga compound and nailing all those tables to the roof!" Ino started laughing at the thought of getting away with something so absurd.

"Well, that's what they get for picking on Hina-chan. She's too nice and didn't do anything." Naruto pouted as if to justify why he had to pull that prank.

Exiting the sewers at another random location, they walked to one of the rivers to wash up. Running up to the more deeper area, Naruto runs up and cannon balls in with Ino quickly following suit.

Giggling after she resurfaces, she reaches over and hugs Naruto. "Thanks Naru, everyone else is so boring, its so much fun when we prank together!"

Blushing, Naruto doesn't say anything but smiles.

* * *

"Oh speaking of which, did you meet your jounin sensei?" Naruto asked to see if he could get some insight on different sensei's.

"Yeah, we did. He's some smoker guy that kept preaching about teamwork and how we need to make our parents proud like the previous Ino-Shika-Cho trio."

Snickering, "Well, that's a huge legacy to follow. But smoker? I think if you want, we can prank him pretty good."

"Haha, it hasn't gotten to that yet, but I'll get with you so we can do something together."

Smiling, "Hey its time to close up, let me help you out and I'll walk you home."

After closing up, Naruto walks Ino home, where they give each other a warm hug and wish each other a good night.

_Oh Naru-kun..._

* * *

The next morning, Naruto decided to walk with Sakura to the training area, and met her at her house.

"You know, you didn't have to walk with me, ya know."

"I know, I just wanted to. Hey, before we get there, lets do our best huh? It would suck if we got separated after everything we've been through huh?"

"Yeah, I won't fail, unlike you, I've never failed a test." Sakura teased Naruto while he just pouted.

"That's mean, Saku-chan."

They walked towards the training area and met up with Sasuke. "Morning Sasuke-kun."

"Hn."

Naruto laughed at his response, and they all took a seat at the table nearby waiting for Kakashi. Hours passed and still no sign of Kakashi, and they were all getting irritated and frustrated.

"What the hell?! Where is he?" Naruto suddenly yelled in frustration as both Sakura and Sasuke jumped in surprise.

"Naruto-no-baka, quit yelling, whats wrong with you?" Sakura thumped him on the head.

"Sorry Saku, just frustrated that he made us wait here since 5 in the morning, not eat breakfast AND he's late."

"I know it sucks, but what choice do we have, we'll just have to wait for him and see what happens." Naruto and Sakura looked over stared at Sasuke like he had a 2nd head. Noticing their stare, he looked up at them and tilted his head in confusion, "What?"

Naruto was the first to recover, "Well, that's the most you've ever said in a sentence to us."

"Hn."

Chuckling, Naruto sat back down and continued waiting. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait for long, cause Kakashi showed up shortly.

"Yo!" Kakashi showed up suddenly with a smile on his face.

"You're late!" Both Naruto and Sakura yelled and pointed at him while Sasuke had tick mark on his head.

"Well you, there was this black cat on my way here, and I had to take the long way around to get here."

"Liar!"

"Anyways," Kakashi set up a timer on the table they were sitting at, "The timer is set to noon, you all have to grab these bells to pass the test." He held up 2 bells, and began giving them all the directions to the test.

"Wait, why are there only 2 bells? There's 3 of us here." Sakura asked.

"Well, the 3rd person will get tied up to the stump over there while the other 2 get to eat lunch." Kakashi said with a smile. "Oh, and that person will fail and be sent back to the academy."

"Wait wait wait. If no matter what, we're all going to get separated?" Sakura started to raise her voice, "So the weakest one goes back to the academy?"

Naruto looked down in contemplation as Kakashi answered, "I don't care about who's the weakest, but the person that doesn't get a bell will fail."

Naruto and Sakura didn't budge taking in the shocking news, and Sasuke frowned at the directions given to them.

"Well? Lets..." Naruto started trembling and threw his hands into a cross position, "_Kage Bun.." _A mouth covered his mouth, and suddenly Kakashi was standing right behind him. "Nuh uh, Naruto, I haven't told you to begin yet."

_He's fast. _ The same thought ran through all 3 genin's mind.

"Well then, let's begin." And he disappeared from view.

As Sasuke decided to jump away to find a hiding spot, a hand grabbed his shoulder preventing him from moving.

Turning around, Sasuke saw Naruto grab him. "What do you want, dobe?"

"Look, no matter what, we need to grab those bells."

"Well, no shit."

"Let me finish, even if we only grab 2 of those bells, at least 2 of us will pass. If we fail to grab any of those bells, all of us will fail."

"Hn. And?"

"You 2 can have those bells. If nothing else, I will go back to the academy. It won't be the first time I've failed, and it would be embarrassing if the 'Rookie of the Year' and the smartest girl in class fails huh?"

"Naru...you can't do that..." Sakura barely managed to get those words out. She didn't want to be separated from Naruto.

Walking up to Sakura, he whispered in her ear, "It's okay Saku. We can still be friends after this exam, but you won't get another chance to be with Sasuke, and if we all fail, there's no guarantee that you will team up with him again."

"But..." Sakura tried to protest.

Ignoring her, he turned around to face Sasuke, "Anyways, this is what I have planned..."

* * *

Kakashi observed them talking to each other, but unfortunately couldn't hear what they were saying.

_Hmm, let's see what their plan is._

Sasuke and Sakura jumped into the bushes to hide, while Naruto just stayed in the clearing. A few minutes passed, but he failed to move, so Kakashi decided to meet him out in the clearing.

"You know...stealth is a huge key in being a ninja, why are you just standing there in the open?"

Smirking, he threw his fingers up in the cross position, "_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" _20 clones appeared around Kakashi and started to bum rush him.

_So this is the technique he beat Mizuki with. I heard his genjutsu was horrible, but I guess when you combine genjutsu and ninjutsu into a single technique, he can execute it perfectly. No matter, he's still a genin. _Kakashi smirked and began dispatching the clones one at a time.

"Shinobi lesson #1. Taijutsu. Hand to hand combat. Quick and fast maneuvering will enable you to strike your opponent." After dispelling all the clones, he vanished and reappeared behind Naruto.

_Taijutsu Ougi: Sennin Gorashi!_

Poking Naruto in the butt, he launched him into the air, where he disappeared in a pop of smoke. _Kage Bunshin? Hmm, interesting._

Kakashi disappeared and appeared next to Sakura. "Yo!"

"Ahh!" And she was caught in Kakashi's genjutsu.

"Shinobi lesson #2. Genjutsu. Fool an opponent with their weakness." And then he disappeared.

Sakura looked around and noticed that she was alone. Kakashi was gone and wasn't sure what happened. Looking around, she walked towards a voice that was calling her name.

"Sakura..."

But before she could approach the voice, she felt 2 hands grab her butt and her chest, without looking down, she screamed, "PERVERT!"

As she started screaming, the genjutsu broke and she looked down to see Naruto was the one that was grabbing her. Her face started to redden in anger.

"Wait...wait...Saku...I can explain..." Naruto stammered out, but it didn't help, she punched Naruto in the face knocking him into a nearby tree.

"Saku...you were in genjutsu...I was only trying to get you out of it." Naruto said while rubbing his cheek.

"Sorry, I just reacted before letting you explain..." Sakura started to rub his cheek.

"It's ok, I didn't really expect him to put you in a genjutsu, but that doesn't matter, everything is going according to plan." Grabbing Sakura's hand, he led her to another area.

* * *

In another area, Kakashi appeared behind Sasuke. "I'm not like them. I won't fail in getting those bells from you."

"Oh? Let's see what you got"

"Hn." Sasuke threw a few shuriken and kunai towards Kakashi.

"Attacking head on isn't going to work ya know."

Smirking, Sasuke replied, "I know." And set off a trap pushing Kakashi into another area.

Sasuke appeared behind Kakashi and threw a wild kick which was easily caught. He then twisted his upper torso to throw a hook which was also caught. Using a last resort, he pivoted his body to try and kick Kakashi on top of the head, which was easily blocked by raising the hand that was holding Sasuke's leg.

By occupying Kakashi's upper body, he tried to grab the bells, but was just a hair off, as Kakashi pushed himself away.

_Not bad for a genin. _Occupied with with Sasuke was going to do next, he sensed 2 people popping out of the ground reaching for the bells. He grabbed both of their wrists before they could reach the bells and threw them at Sasuke, where they call piled on top of each other.

"Shit! We almost had it! Sasuke, I told you to not attack him like that!" Naruto scolded Sasuke.

"Hn. I was going to grabbed them anyways."

"Yeah, but you didn't! You were suppose to stick to the plan."

Kakashi looked at the sight in amusement. "Oh? What was suppose to happen?"

"It doesn't matter, all that work was for a waste cause Sasuke didn't want to listen."

"Naru, can you get your hands off my ass again and get up?"

Kakashi pointed at the area behind him, "You mean the traps you laid there?"

Sakura looked shock, "You know we set those traps up?"

"Ah, well, I know Naruto is the #1 prankster in Konoha, I figured I should keep an eye out for him since he did manage to pull a fast one on me yesterday."

"So all that work for nothing?" Naruto looked frustrated at being found out.

"Yeah, I saw those 3 traps behind me."

"Uh...3?" Sakura looked confused, "Kakashi-sensei, there were 6 traps."

Kakashi eyes widened. "Oh? Well it doesn't matter anyways, you guys failed. Follow me."

As they arrived back to the eating area, they spotted 2 bentos laying around. Kakashi pointed at the lunches while looking at them, "Sasuke and Sakura can eat, but Naruto gets tied up, and no food!"

"EH? Why do I get tied up?" Naruto started to protest, but Kakashi cut him off, "Well, I hate being pranked, and you are my victim this time."

Naruto face-faulted at this, but Kakashi continued, "Although, you guys had a good plan, you all failed to execute. Do you still not understand the point of this test?"

"We worked together sensei!"

"That's true, but even though Naruto came up with the plan, you other 2 didn't do anything to help him, and that's why I still have these bells."

"What? I was working with Naruto to try and grab them from you, sensei."

"You easily fell for my genjutsu. For the smartest girl in the class, you should have none the disruption to you chakra. And you, Mr. Rookie of the year, you were so cocky, you thought you could go up against me and win? The worse part was, there was an actual plan to work together. If I had seen enough, you would have passed, but I guess it's too late for that huh?"

"Hn, I almost got those bells by myself."

"Key word, ALMOST. Now that you missed your chance, what now?"

"Naruto, I am very impressed that you came up with a solid plan." Naruto smiled at the compliment, but it quickly went away with Kakashi continued his evaluation, "No matter how good the plan was, it won't be successful, if you don't 1. Trust your comrades, and 2. Don't have the respect of your teammates."

"What are you talking about, I trusted them enough to involve them in my plan!"

"Why was Sakura's role so limited? Do you think she's so weak that you can't give her a bigger role?" Naruto was silenced at that, and Sakura glanced over at him to get a better answer.

"Every ninja works together in a team to fulfill their mission. This monument here, reflects all those that died as heroes during a mission. No one is strong enough to do everything themselves, and failure to give proper instructions, and failure to do your share results in death."

All 3 of them hung their heads down in shame as Kakashi finished, "I will give you one more chance. Because there was a good plan in place, I will give you another chance to try again before I fail you. However, I will not be just dodging your attacks. I will be fighting back, I want you guys at your full strength. Sasuke and Sakura, eat your lunch. DO NOT share it with Naruto or I will fail you all." He walked away as they all looked up at Naruto.

At the moment, his stomach decided to growl. Face-faulting he told them, "Look, I have another plan...just don't eat in front of me...and don't let me smell it... After you finish up, I'll tell you my plan, I'll make sure I get those bells for you 2."

Sasuke looked around and noticed that Kakashi was gone. "Here, it was my fault that we almost failed, you should eat up so we can all be at full strength."

"Are you serious? Kakashi-sensei said he'd fail us if you feed me!"

"It's okay, I don't sense him around, do you?"

"Yeah Naru, I don't sense him either. Here you can eat mine cause you 2 are stronger." Sakura offered.

"Saku... I don't think you're..." Naruto tried to apologize, but Sakura waved him off, "I know Naru, here just eat."

"Um, I'm tied up Saku, can you feed me?" Naruto had big teary eyes.

"Hurry before he comes back"

Sakura fed Naruto a piece of meat that was in the bento, and as she was beginning to feed him another, a huge wind pushed it out of her hands and Kakashi appeared.

"YOU GUYS! I TOLD YOU WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!" Kakashi had somehow managed to change the weather around the training ground. "YOU ALL...PASS!"

:)


	4. The Past Doesn't Make Us

True Luck

Chapter 3 – The Past Doesn't Make Us.

_Italics_ – Thoughts

"EHH?"

Kakashi smiled at all their shocked faces. _This is the most fun I've had in a long time. _

"What do you mean sensei?" Sakura was confused.

He stopped smiling, but turned to a little bit to the side and looked up absently, "All the idiots that took my test before you guys, just listened to everything I said. They didn't have a mind of their own."

He turned back around to look at his students to see that they were paying attention to everything he was saying, "It is true that there is a ninja rule that 'those who don't follow the rules are considered trash'." He then turned to the monument with all the K.I.A. Ninjas, placed a hand on the surface, then continued, "but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."

He looked at the group and saw them looking at each other and smiling, even Sasuke, "I can tell that there is some kind of bond between you. Even if its a small one, I see it with Sasuke also. I hope you guys don't disappoint me as my first team that I've ever passed."

"Wow sensei, we're the first team that you've ever passed?"

"Yes Sakura, my test pits you against each other, and if you aren't selfish and are willing to put the needs of another in front of yours, you pass. I said this before, one person can't possibly do everything by themselves, if they try, its a very lonely life."

"Anyways, I need to report to the Hokage. Anyways, congrats you guys. Starting tomorrow, we will begin working on missions and such as Team 7."

Kakashi popped away as Naruto untied himself from the stump he was on.

"Naru, why did you stay tied up this whole time if you could untie yourself?"

"Oh, I wanted didn't want us to get in trouble, there was no reason for me to leave the stump anyways. Hey! Let's all get something warm to eat, those bento's were kinda cold." Naruto offered to both Sasuke and Sakura.

Sasuke looked at Naruto for a second and nodded in agreement. _I think it'll be a good time for me to ask all the questions I want answered._

"Ok Naru, where should we go?"

"There's a good place that serves warm omusubi. We can relax there." Sasuke's raised his eyebrow wondering how Naruto knew his favorite food.

When they arrived and sat down in the restaurant, Naruto jumped up in shock, "Oh! I forgot that I needed to get some paperwork done now. Sorry guys, I gotta go, but the meal is on me." He turned around to where only Sakura could see him and he gave her a wink as he left.

"Hn."

Watching Naruto leave the restaurant, Sakura turned her head to face Sasuke, "Um, so Sasuke-kun, what do you think about our team?"

"Hn. It's interesting."

"Oh." _Well he isn't very sociable is he?_

There was a few minutes of awkward silence, "Sakura" she was shocked with Sasuke called her name, "You seem very close to Naruto."

"Uh..its not like that, we're just friends." Sakura tried to explain.

"No, I didn't mean that, I meant you know things about him right?"

Her eyes narrowed, "What kind of things?"

Sasuke took his hands away from their normal folding position and sat back in a relaxed position, "He doesn't seem dumb enough to be considered the dobe."

"Oh, well no he's not dumb."

"And?"

"Well, I don't want to be telling his business, but haven't you noticed that he's not always in class?"

"I figured he was just skipping class."

Sakura chuckled, "Well that was sometimes true, but no that's not it."

Sasuke just looked at her as if expecting her to finish her story.

She sighed and continued, "Ok, well if I tell you this story, you owe me." To which Sasuke had a surprised look.

"What do you want me to do?"

Smiling she folded up her hands the same way he does and said, "Well, you stop acting like that, you treat me like a normal person on your team. I want to be able to rely on you, and I want you to be able to rely on me."

"Hn, then you need to get.." Sakura cut him off, "No, we're a team now, if I need to improve on something, I expect you to help me, and not ignore me like I'm some sorta disease."

Sasuke actually smiled at her, "I thought you were just some brainless fan-girl. Ok, you have a deal."

Inner Sakura was having a field day, but on the exterior, Sakura just smiled, "It all started with...

* * *

Naruto decided to roam around to give Sakura and Sasuke some 'alone' time. He didn't really have anything planned by it felt nice to get some fresh air, and decided to walk towards his favorite ramen stand. On his way there, he spotted Ino walking by herself.

"Hey Ino-chan, what are you doing here?"

"Hi Naru, we just finished our test with our sensei,"

"Oh, us too, I assume from your smile, you did ok?"

"Yeah, we worked together and passed."

"Great, why don't you join me at Ichiraku's and you can tell me all about it." Ino nodded and they both entered the stand where they took seats next to each other. After ordering his bowl(s), Ino told him all about her test and he told her about theirs.

After they finished their meal, Naruto decided to take Ino to the top of the Hokage Monument.

"Why are we going here, Naru?"

"I think its the most beautiful spot in the village. I wanted you to see it."

Clenching her fists, she knew she had to ask him something that's been bothering her. "Naruto, I need to ask you something."

Naruto was shocked to hear her use his full first name, "Um, sure Ino-chan, is there something wrong?"

"I'm serious Naruto, I want you to be completely honest with me."

"Of course, what is it?" He grabbed her clenched hand in an attempt to calm her down.

"Naruto, how do you feel about Sakura?" She couldn't look him in the eyes for fear of hearing the answer she didn't want to hear.

Naruto was confused at the question, but placed his finger under Ino's chin and lifted her face to match his. "She's one of my best friends, why do you ask?"

Tears threatened to escape her eyes, "Is that all she is? Is there nothing more?"

Naruto inched his face a little bit closer to hers, "Of course, she's just a friend, nothing more, nothing less."

Ino was tired of beating around the bush, she had to be blunt, "So you don't love her?"

Naruto released her hand and stepped back in laughter, "What? What makes you think I love Saku?"

Ino pouted at being laughed at, "Naru, I'm serious, you don't have to laugh at me."

He stopped laughing, but still had a huge smile on his face, "Sorry, Ino-chan, I just don't know why you asked me that, I don't have those kinds of feelings for Saku."

"But you always seem to prefer talking to her over me, and you look like you're really close to her."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he leaned in towards Ino's face, "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"Ino-chan...are you jealous of Saku?"

Ino's face turned red and she lightly pushed him away, but gave no reply. Naruto took this as a yes, and decided to give her an answer.

"Ino-chan, first, I have way more fun with you. I don't go pranking with anyone else, except you. I like your ideas, and I like the flair you add to our trips." Ino blushed at his compliment, but didn't say anything, "You know that I am a very private person. Sure I talk to you all the time, but I don't like to throw my business out there."

"Why?"

"Because my problems are just that, mine. Even when I don't talk to people about things, it doesn't stop Saku from nosing around." Naruto chuckled at that statement.

"Naru," Ino clasped his hands between hers, "I want you to be able to tell me things."

Looking down at his hand being held in Ino's warm grip, "Why? It's not very interesting."

"Well, why don't you tell me and I'll be the judge of that? What does Sakura know that I don't?"

"Ok, lets sit down, its kinda a long story." They both sat down, and Ino was still holding his hand.

* * *

(AN: Now here, is where Sakura and Sasuke along with Naruto and Ino's conversation led to. For the most part, they're telling Naruto's story.)

Flashback to a few years ago

Scenery: In a forest where Sakura and Hinata were running away from a few bullies.

The 2 girls were running desperately trying to outrun the 5 kids chasing them, but Hinata tripped on a stray branch and managed to twist her ankle. Sakura stopped to try and pick her up, but Hinata cried in pain at trying to move. The 5 kids manage to surround the 2 girls and were coming in closer.

"Why are you chasing us? We didn't do anything to you all!" Sakura tried to yell in order to intimidate the bigger kids.

The biggest boy stepped forward, not scared at all, "You were playing with that evil kid. My mom says people that talk to him are evil too."

"What? Naruto isn't evil. We were just playing tag!"

"Ha, I don't care, my mom said so," He pushed Sakura down and scraped her knees and elbows when she hit the ground.

"That's what you get for playing with him." He then started to walk to Hinata and raised his foot. "Your turn."

Hinata closed her eyes and clenched up. She couldn't move, she couldn't run, she just hoped that it didn't hurt too much.

The foot never came. There was some rustling and a loud grunt, but it wasn't for her. She opened her eyes and saw an orange blur standing in front of her and Sakura. She looked around and 3 of the boys were laying on the ground holding their faces or stomachs.

"Naruto!" They both yelled his name at seeing their tag buddy.

"Get out of here. I'll hold them off so you guys can get away." Sakura got up and started to pick up Hinata, before limping away.

Sensing that the girls had gone a separate ways away, he turned and frowned while looking at the other boys.

"What do you think you can do, evil boy?"

Naruto was clenching his fists, "I don't care what you say or do to me, why did you have to pick on them?"

"Our mom says that you're an evil kid, and anyone that plays with you is evil too." All 5 kids began to surround Naruto, preventing any escape route.

Naruto leapt on the biggest boy and tackled him onto the ground where he repeatedly started punching him in the face. The other 4 boys just watched in horror as Naruto continued his assault. Suddenly a force blow to Naruto's head came out of nowhere, and he flew off the boy and landed face forward into the ground.

"Get off my him!"

Naruto tried to pick himself up, but was kicked down again before he could get even get on his knees. All the kids ran to him and started to kick and beat him. All he could do was cover his head to try and prevent any serious damage.

Naruto couldn't fight back, but as they stopped hitting them, he looked up at the kids, "You can hit me all you want, just leave those girls alone."

"Haha, fine!" And the big kid kicked him in the face knocking him out.

Behind a tree, Sakura saw the whole incident occurred. Wiping the tears off her face, she waited for the boys to walk away before turning around to Hinata and asked if she could walk by herself.

"Yeah.. I think so."

"Okay, we need to take Naruto to the hospital."

Sakura could barely lift Naruto up, but through sheer will power she found the strength to carry him while Hinata was limping slowly behind her. They took him to the hospital and begged the first doctor they saw to help him.

A few hours later, Naruto woke up and saw 2 puffy eyed girls staring at him. Groaning, he grabbed his head in pain.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled in surprise at him waking up.

"Ugh, what happened?"

Hinata decided to speak up and answer him, "You saved us...those mean boys were chasing us."

"Oh." Naruto looked down at his hands, "You guys should probably leave."

Sakura frowned, but stood up and walked towards him, "Why should we do that?"

"You heard what they said right? I'm 'evil'." Naruto used air quotes to illustrate his point.

"We don't think you're evil. Besides, you saved us!" Hinata had a small smile and nodded in agreement.

"We're friends now!" Naruto smiled at Sakura.

* * *

"Even after that incident, I still tried to avoid them, but they kept following me around, sometimes together, but normally, Sakura kept finding me." Naruto had taken a pause to see if Ino had any questions.

"And just like that, you guys were best friends?"

Naruto smiled, "No, not really. I didn't want them to get hurt because of me, so I tried to avoid them, but Sakura insisted on playing with her."

"So what did she do?"

"Well, it seems that Hinata and Sakura talked to each other to try and find a way to get closer to me."

"What does that mean?"

"Well it seems weird, but I think they were taking turns stalking me. I didn't know Hinata was in it until this one incident." Ino tilted her head in confusion as Naruto continued. "Haven't you notice that I failed the academy finals 3 times?"

Ino nodded, "Well, that's because I can't mold chakra properly."

:D


	5. That's the Whole Truth

True Luck

Chapter 4 – That's the whole truth

Italics – Thoughts

AN: Alright, I think this should be the last chapter setting up all of Naruto's background)

Ino looked confused, "I've seen you use different jutsu's. What do you mean you can't mold chakra?"

"Well, it was a long time ago, but when I started to go to the academy, I didn't know anything. I couldn't read, I couldn't mold chakra, and no one would teach me anything."

"That's horrible!"

"Yeah, well, I needed to learn how to properly use the _Henge_ Jutsu. So I had to teach myself how to mold some sort of chakra, to try at least."

"Wait, what do you mean, you 'needed' too? And it sounds like you molded chakra just fine. I mean you have that pervy Henge, but I don't understand."

"Well, I'll explain why I 'needed' to. But I guess Hinata had used her _Byakugan_ as a mean to track me. Do you know what those eyes can see?"

Ino shrugged, "Not really..."

"Well, one of the things the _Byakugan _does is sees a person's chakra coils. The first time she used her _Byakugan_ to find me she told me there was something weird about my chakra flow."

"Weird?"

"Yeah, you know how you normally mold chakra from your interior reserves?"

Ino nodded, "Yeah, you draw the energy from inside, and by using hand signs, you mold the chakra to however you want."

"Exactly, but I don't do that. I absorb the energy externally, and it somehow just mixes in with my current chakra. That's why I don't use multiple hand seals for anything. Everything jutsu I use is either a single hand seal, or doesn't require any at all."

"I don't exactly understand, but that's kinda cool. I mean it seems very convenient, right?"

"You would think so, but no. Even though it seems like I would never run out of energy, I can't control the amount to focus on my jutsu. That's why I always mess up the _Bunshin no Jutsu. _They always turned out all distorted and weird."

"Wait, you told me you have a Kage Bunshin that works fine."

"Oh, I think it's because it's kinda a ninjutsu/genjutsu hybrid. I create a mass of chakra by dividing up my own energy, but mold it look just like me. I'm not sure tho."

"Wow, that seems very complicated, Naru. Is that why you're so close to Hinata?"

"Yeah, she kinda explained to me what I was doing. She also try to teach me the proper way to mold my chakra, but I had only known how to do it my way, and I can't do it the 'correct' way."

"Well that's sweet of her."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Yeah...well, that's one of the reason's anyways."

Ino's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean."

"Well this is why I 'needed' to use the Henge. You know my _Oirike no Jutsu_ right?"

Ino had a tick mark on the top of her head, "Yes, I do."

"Well, I use her as a model, not naked of course, but I use 'her' to work."

"Wait, WHAT?!"

"Calm done, Ino-chan, you're over reacting. I meant, I have a part time job to pay for my rent and food." Ino's eyes widened, "The amount of money I get as an orphan barely covers my rent. That's not including food, utilities, or clothes."

"So that's why you miss classes sometimes and wear that hideous orange jumpsuit?"

Naruto looked offended, "Hey! Its not that bad, I wash it everyday, ya know!"

Ino rolled her eyes, "Anyways, what is it that you do?"

"Oh, well, I tried gambling, but apparently I'm too young, so some random dude told me to be a server. I had to change into a more appropriate age, but the people that would allow me to work told me that females get tipped well, so that's where that jutsu came from."

"Wait, so where do you work?"

"Oh..I work at one of the brothels that a lot of people visit. I have A LOT of dirt on everyone, its surprising that no one noticed it was me, but I guess they don't allow guests to use any jutsu of any kind."

"You...work...at...a...brothel?!"

"I'm just a waitress there, Ino-chan. And its part-time so I can feed myself. I need somewhere that will pay me in cash, cause no banks will allow me to put my money in them. Anyways, that's pretty much why Sakura and Hinata are close to me, they found out all my secrets and confronted me about them."

"Why did you never tell me?"

"I liked having fun with someone that never pitied me. I know you were told about me being 'evil' and I'm glad you never listened to those people, I just don't want you to feel sorry for me. I hope you understand, Ino-chan."

They both looked down, and noticed that she was still holding his hand. Blushing, she looked back up to him, but was disappointed when he pulled her up. "Come on, we've been here for a few hours, let me walk you home."

They walked to the front of Ino's house in relative silence. Naruto decided to speak up, "Look Ino-chan, I know that I told you a lot tonight that may change how you feel about me, but..." Ino shut him up by putting a finger on his lips.

"Naru, I understand why everything happened. I just wish you would trust me enough to talk to me about these things."

"I do, Ino-chan, that's why I told you pretty much everything tonight. Thanks for listening to me then."

Ino was blushing hard. _I have to tell him... _Naruto cut her thoughts off with a warm hug. She stiffened for a second, but relaxed into it and hugged him back. After a few minutes, Naruto pulled back and kissed her on the cheek.

"Good night, Ino-chan." And he was gone.

* * *

In another side of town, we see Sasuke and Sakura heading back to her house.

"I hope I answered everything you needed about Naru?" Sakura glanced at him with her hands behind her back. _I don't think he needs to know about Naru being a 'waitress'. Shannaro!_

"Yeah, I would have never guessed." Sasuke looked up as everything started to settle in.

"Naru has had it tough, but he is a great guy. He would move the moon for his friends if it were in his power. If you weren't on this team, I would have never told you, even with how I feel about you, Sasuke." she stated as a matter of factly, leaving out the 'kun' to show how serious she was.

"Hn." Sasuke actually seemed surprised to hear that, "Is he stronger than me?"

Sakura looked shocked at him questioning himself like that, "Stronger? Probably not. But he's more hard headed than anyone else I know."

Hn. That doesn't answer my question.

Reaching the front of Sakura's house, "Well Sasuke-kun, this is me. Even with the entire night was spent talking about Naruto, I did have a fun time with to you." She gave him a sweet smile and turned around to go into her house.

"Hn."

* * *

The next morning, team 7 met up at 7a.m in the usual training ground to await their first mission.

"I hope this first mission is something really cool. I wanna save a princess or uncover some ancient runes or something!" Naruto was pacing around in anticipation.

"Well whatever it is, you aren't gonna be needing to do anything else right?" Sakura had a tick mark on her head as she raised her fist, referring to him working as a waitress.

Naruto smiled nervously and put his hands up in an attempt to calm Sakura down, "Yes, yes, Saku."

A couple of hours later, Kakashi finally showed up, "Yo!"

"You're late again!" Sakura and Naruto both pointed and yelled.

"Well you see, I was lost on the road of life." Kakashi said while smiling and scratching his head.

"Eh, what the hell does that mean?"

"Anyways, today we're going to do our first mission. I just got back from the Hokage's office, and this is our briefing."

The 3 kid's ears perked up as they listened in.

"Alright, our first mission is…..," Kakashi started, " to pull out some weed. Let's get going."

Both Sakura and Naruto fell face down onto the floor, anime style.

"What the hell!? Kakashi-sensei, that's not a mission!" yelled Naruto.

"Well, that's what it says Naruto, if you don't want to do it, then you won't ever get better missions."

"Eh, fine, but it's still not fair." Naruto said pouting, and folding his arms together.

As they arrived at the small garden, they saw a old woman with a happy smile waving at them. However as soon as she set her eyes on Naruto, her smile disappeared and a sneer could be seen.

Naruto noticed her sudden change in mood and began to frown. _There's that look again._

Naruto simply dismissed the woman's cold stare and stood behind Kakashi, awaiting his orders.

"Ok, well these are your workers, my job is to oversee them and make sure they don't mess up." Kakashi said pointing

at Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke.

He then turned around and said, "Alright guys, have fun, I'll be around." And with that, he pulled out his all famous 'Come Come Paradise' book.

As Kakashi left, the old lady gave them the task of pulling out the weed in her whole garden. She divided her garden up into 3 different sections and gave each genin a section. When Naruto received his, he did some simple calculations in his head.

_What the hell, I got 45 percent of her garden. _Naruto silently mumbled under his breath, but didn't make much of it.

The other 2 noticed this, but since Naruto didn't say anything, they decided it wasn't a good idea to jump in. Fortunately, the day passed without incident and Naruto even managed to finish the same time as both Sasuke and Sakura.

After cleaning up, the group started heading towards the Hokage Tower to give the mission report. The entire time, all 3 members were quiet, and after Kakashi finished handing in his report, he pulled the 3 of them to the side.

"Whats wrong with you guys? This isn't the team that I passed yesterday." Kakashi eyes narrowed and looked at Naruto.

The other 2 also glanced at Naruto's direction. He looked up and said, "That's cause it was a boring mission, sensei. I thought we were gonna be doing something exciting like fighting a dragon or something."

Every face-faulted, "That's why you were so quiet today?!" Sakura thumped him on the head.

Wincing, he rubbed his head where he had been hit, "Well, yeah, why else?"

"You didn't notice that woman was being mean to you?"

"Come on, Saku, you know I'm used to that, and I don't care what they do to me." Kakashi and Sasuke were silent as the other 2 were talking. It would be kind of awkward to try and jump in anyways.

"But that's not fair!"

"It doesn't matter, she's the client. Unless she decides to put her hands on me, as far as I'm concerned, she's the boss. Besides, I need the money, not like I have any other way to pay my bills, huh?" Naruto winked at Sakura and she seemed to calm down.

"I see."

Naruto turned to Kakashi, effectively finishing the conversation, "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, are you gonna train us today?"

"Huh? I spent all day training you."

"What do you mean? We were on a mission, that wasn't training!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at Kakashi also as he had also expected to be trained. "That was team building training, and that's more important than any kind of personal training I can offer you. Until you all grasp this, that's all I will do." Then he vanished.

"..."

"Well, you guys have a good day, I'm gonna try and get some training done." Naruto walked off while waving his hands in the air.

The next couple of weeks passed by similarly. They would meet up, and Kakashi would always be late. They would get some lame mission, which they finished successfully. Kakashi would refuse to train them any further, and they would all have to train themselves.

* * *

Ino sat at the counter of Yamanaka Flowers, bored. It's been a while since Naruto has visited her, and she was getting restless. Did he forget about her? Was he avoiding her?

_That's it! I'm going to find him tonight!_

Meanwhile, at the Hokage tower, team 7 was in front of Sarutobi awaiting for a mission. Sarutobi looked at a mess of scrolls on his tables before looking up, "Alright...I guess for today, I have this mission for you guys. The library needs to be cleaned again, so I'm assigning you guys to help them out."

Naruto calmly stood up, and turned around to face his team. "Will you guys please excuse us for a minute, I need to ask 'Hokage-sama' something."

Everyone was confused at this. Since when did Naruto refer to Hokage as Hokage-sama?

"Uh, sure." Everyone left the room and Sarutobi just sat there looking at Naruto.

"What is it Naruto?"

"Stop giving us these bullshit missions. I want a real one!"

"Naruto-kun, you know that I can't do that. All genin's must perform the D-rank missions."

"And we've always completed them flawlessly. I'm tired of these menial jobs. Let me do something important."

"There are certain procedures. If I started giving rookie genin anything but D rank missions, I would have to give them to everyone."

"Ugh...alright old man, you give me no choice." Naruto stood up and Sarutobi's eyes narrowed.

"What you are planning Naruto-kun?" Naruto smirked, "Last chance, hokage-sama..."

Sensing that he wasn't going to budge, Naruto henged into a cute older blond girl with pig tails. 'She' winked at Sarutobi and folded her arms under her cleavage.

"Oh My... You are..." Sarutobi's eyes widened as Naruto changed back to his normal self.

"Yes, 'Hiruzen-san'. Now that you know who I am, I'm sure you don't want people to know where you go on your free time."

Sarutobi hung his head down in shame. "I can't believe I never noticed."

"Don't worry old man, no one else that goes there knows. So...about that mission."

He sighed and told Naruto to invite his teammates back into the room. After everyone gathered in, he began the briefing. "Alright, I guess I can give you guys a C Ranked Mission. You will be escorting a bridge builder back to the Wave Country and protecting him until he finishes the bridge. There might be bandits and such around that area, so make sure you do a good job. You will leave tomorrow morning."

After they were dismissed, Sasuke and Sakura stopped Naruto outside to ask him why the Hokage agreed to give them a higher ranked mission.

"Oh, I just asked him really nicely." Naruto had a huge grin on his face, but refused to say anything else.

"Hn. Whatever, see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Sasuke-kun!"

After Sasuke walked off, Naruto offered to walk Sakura home. "He seems to be warming up huh?"

"Yeah, he still puts up all those walls, but I think all the team missions and training are opening him up." As they continued walking, she told him of the few private training sessions they had alone. Nothing exciting, just training, but he was spending time with her.

Approaching Sakura's house, they saw Ino walking toward them. Sakura waved and smiled when she saw Ino, "Hi Ino! I haven't seen you in a while."

"Hi Sakura, its good to see you again. Sorry, but I need to borrow your teammate." She grabbed Naruto and dragged him away leaving Sakura just standing there with her hand still in the waving position.

_That was...weird._

* * *

"Ino-chan, where are we going?" Naruto tried to regain balance, but Ino wasn't letting him with the pace she was keeping.

"You're taking me out for dinner!" Ino stopped and turned around to face Naruto.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"You've been avoiding me for the past 3 weeks. What kind of friend are you?" Ino scowled and folded her arms.

"Ino-chan, I've been busy training, and I figured out a few things. Besides, I was going to come find out tonight anyways."

"Really?" She rolled her eyes not believing him.

"Yeah, we got a C Ranked mission and we'll be out for a few weeks, so I had to see you before I left."

"Really, how did you manage that?" Ino was shocked, no rookie genin was suppose to get anything but D ranks.

Naruto nervously laughed, making her eyes narrowed at him. "Well, you remember that 'job'? He use to go there frequently. Oh! You can't say anything though."

She laughed and promised not to tell anyone. "So where are you going to take me?"

Naruto smiled at her, "Why don't you go home and change into something comfortable and I'll come pick up you in about 30 minutes?"

* * *

30 minutes later, Naruto threw a few rocks at Ino's window to try and get her attention. Sticking her head out she saw Naruto dressed up in his normal attire but he was holding a basket. "I'll be right down, Naru."

A few moments later, the front door opened and Ino stepped out. She walked down the steps and Naruto just stared at her. She was wearing short shorts, and a loose t-shirt, a very simple outfit.

She tilted her head in confusion cause Naruto wasn't moving or saying anything. "Is there something wrong?"

Caught staring, he blushed, "Sorry, you look really cute." This time, it was Ino's turn to blush. "So what are we doing."

"Well, there's this place that has a great view and I thought we could have dinner there." Naruto lifted the basket in reiterate the eating outdoors fact.

"Okay, well lead the way."

Ino was following Naruto closely and asked him where this place was.

"Don't worry, Ino-chan, you'll see it soon enough." Ino pouted.

Walking through the woods for a few minutes going uphill, she was getting restless. Finally they got to a clearing and Naruto let out a breath of relief. "Ah good. We made it up here in time."

"Time for what?"

He placed his hand behind her and nudged her forward to where he was standing. The sight in front of her was breathtaking. There was a great view of the Hokage's monument and of the village, but what was great was the angle of the sunset that made the entire area seem to have a golden glow.

"Naru, this is beautiful..." her hands were placed in front of her mouth as she took the view in.

"Among other things, but this is one of the few reasons why I am so passionate about Konoha." Ino looked over at him and for the first time, noticed how he always seemed to be so serious at times, and how handsome he looked at this moment.

"Thanks for bringing me up here, Naru. Let's have dinner huh?"

As they sat down, Naruto took out a few containers out, opened them out, and placed them in front of Ino. She looked at the contents of everything and frowned.

"Naru...did you make all of this?"

"Yeah, of course, why?"

"Um...it looks...weird..."

Naruto frowned at this statement, "Hey! At least try it before you make fun of me!"

Ino smiled and tried a bite. Her eyes widened and she dropped her fork.

"Um, Ino-chan, is it that bad?" Naruto was worried, he never had anyone else eat his cooking, it wasn't like he could afford restaurant food or anything.

"Naru, this is incredible! It looks gross, but it tastes so good!" Ino picked up her fork and began devouring the contents.

"I'm glad you like it, you're the first to taste my cooking."

Ino quickly swallowed and looked at him, "How did you learn to cook like this?"

"Oh, no one really lets me eat at their restaurant, so I had to learn to cook for myself. There's no hot water here for ramen, so I wanted to cook something warm for ya."

They ate the rest of their meal in relative silence. Ino was in no mood to talk, she was too engrossed at everything he made. After they finished eating, Ino helped him put everything back in the basket.

"Hey Naru, can I ask you something?"

"Of course Ino-chan, what is it?"

"Why do people hate you so much?" Naruto's eyes widened, as she continued. "I mean, why do you love Konoha so much if people hate you?"

He looked down and remembered the Kyuubi, "I love Konoha because of the people in this village. I want to be able to protect everyone that is precious to me."

"Am I one of those people?" Ino looked away with a blush on her face.

"Of course you are. I care about you a lot, and I don't want anything to happen to you." Ino's face reddened even more, if that was possible, when Naruto placed his hand on hers.

"So why do people hate you, Naru?"

Ino frowned when he moved his hands away from hers. She looked up to see his head hung low.

"Naru, what is it?"

"I can't tell you Ino-chan..."

"Whatever it is, I can help you with it Naru..." She scooted closer to him and grab his hand.

"Ino-chan...I'm sorry..." she cut him off.

"Naru, just as you are passionate about helping those people close to you, I am just as passionate about helping you." Naruto looked up and saw the determined looked in her eyes, and his own resolve shook.

"Ok, I'll make you a deal. I'm not ready to tell you, but after this mission is done, I promise I'll tell you everything. I promise."

"You promise?"

"Yup. And I never break my promises."

* * *

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	6. Am I the Kyuubi?

True Luck

Chapter 5 – Am I the Kyuubi?

Italics – Thoughts

A few weeks passed and Ino was impatiently waiting for Naruto to return. She missed him dearly, and wanted to know his secret.

_Well, whatever it is, I hope I can help him with it._

Somehow she got word that Naruto was heading back and was almost there at the gates, so she excused herself from her parents shop and waited by the gates to see him.

A few hours passed, but her feelings never deterred. She was still excited to see her best friends, both Naruto and Sakura. Although her feelings for Sasuke was still there, she began to grow up and notice it was nothing but a crush, as her actions in the past couple of months showed.

"Team 7 coming back from a mission. We're going to report to the Hokage." Ino looked up, apparently she was so distracted by her thoughts and didn't notice that team 7 was right in front of her.

"Sakura! Naru..." she started waving at the group, and saw that Sakura was waving back at her, but Naruto's head was hung low. His clothes were torn, and he didn't look up. She barely noticed that behind the group, there was another person standing there. It was someone with long straight black hair, but that was it, because 'she' was completely tied up.

_What's going on? Why is that person tied up? What's wrong with Naru? _There were a lot of questions that Ino had, so she decided to just walk up to the group.

"Hey guys, what's going on?"

"Hey Ino, we just got back from our mission. We have to go report to the Hokage." Sakura was the only person that answered her.

"Hey Naru..." She was desperate to try and get a response out of Naruto, but all he did was look up at her and give a weak smile before looking back down. She glanced over at Sakura, and all she did was shake her head.

_What's going on? What happened on that mission._ She was confused and upset, but there was nothing she could do.

* * *

Team 7 arrived in the Hokage's office and after seeing the bonded prisoner, he dismissed his guards and closed the door.

"So what happened?" Sarutobi asked while eying the prisoner.

Kakashi scratched his head, "Well, it looked like our client, Tazuna, misinformed us about the mission parameters. There were enemy ninjas targeting him among other things."

"And her?" Sarutobi pointed at the prisoner, and everyone chuckled.

Naruto decided to step in, "Old man, that's a boy," Sarutobi face-faulted. "His name is Haku and it's my fault that he's here."

Sarutobi recovered from the shock that this beautiful person was a boy, "I captured him after I thought he killed both Sasuke and Saku. I figured he should live to redeem himself from that, but now that I found out he left them alive, I want to protect him."

"I see. Why don't you tell me what happened during the entire mission. It seems like there's much more that happened here."

Naruto sighed, "Old man, they all know. They saw me during my fight with Haku." Naruto looked down in shame.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi all saw what had happened during that fight. Naruto refused to talked to them the entire time after that fight, and was all curious what had happened. Kakashi knew that Naruto had the Kyuubi in him, but this wasn't the Kyuubi's power.

"Well it began like this..."

* * *

Ino was waiting impatiently outside the Hokage's office. Naruto had to have a good reason to just dismiss her, she thought, but it still made her angry thinking about it. Suddenly the door opened and they all stepped out except for Kakashi and that other person.

Naruto was shocked to see Ino there, he had planned on hiding from her after they were dismissed. She grabbed his hand, but he pulled away. "Ino-chan...I'm sorry, can we meet up later, I'm not feeling up to anything right now." Her heart broke at the emotions that he was showing.

He simply walked away without saying anything to his teammates either, so Ino turned to them, "What the hell happened on that mission?"

"Um...Ino...I dunno if..." Sakura started to try and make an excuse for Naruto.

"Oh no you don't Forehead." Sakura hung her head down. It's been a while since she's been called that. "I need to know what happened, and if you don't tell me, I'm making Sasuke here do it!"

Sasuke looked mortified, so he walked behind Sakura and pushed her forward, "You're doing it. I ain't a part of this."

"Uh, hell no Sasuke-kun, if I'm telling her anything, you're going to be there!" She grabbed his hand and gave Ino an indicator to grab his other hand.

"Hn." Sasuke sighed as he was dragged away by both of the girls.

They arrived at Sakura's house and all went inside her room, where Sasuke stood against the wall and both girls sat on the bed.

"So what happened?" Ino was tired of waiting for an answer.

"Honestly? We don't know." Ino fell off the bed to Sakura's blunt reply.

"Why the hell did you drag me all the way over here if you don't want to tell me?" Ino started to stand up, but Sakura grabbed her hand and pulled her back down.

"Jeez Ino, I'm just saying we don't know exactly what happened. It was during the fight with that boy and..." Ino cut her off.

"Wait that was a boy?" Ino yelled, while Sakura nodded, "That boy was prettier than you!"

Fighting the urge to punch her, Sakura just cleared her throat, "Ahem, anyways, when we woke up during the fight with Haku, Naruto was covered in an purple chakra and was killing the goons that were hired to kill our client."

"Naru killed? What was that purple chakra?"

"I don't know what that chakra was, do you Sasuke-kun?" They both looked at Sasuke, and Ino had a hopeful look on her face to get some answers.

"No I don't." Seeing Ino's face drop at that, he continued, "I don't know what it was, but whatever it is, it had a large amount of killer intent. Maybe Naruto can fully explain everything to you."

"Yeah Ino, there's some things that only Naruto can explain to you." They had left out the bits about knowing that he was housing the Kyuubi, they still didn't understand why his chakra was purple though, even asking Kakashi about it, he said it's chakra should be red.

"I know he was torn about the killing though. He killed a lot of people to protect everyone. Maybe that's why he feels so down. Ino, he hasn't even talked to us since that fight, we don't know why," Sakura figured if Ino knew it wasn't just her that he was ignoring, maybe she would feel better.

"I see. Well thank you guys for telling me." She got up and left.

Even with Ino leaving, Sasuke decided to stay and talk to Sakura. "Sakura.."

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"I know we haven't talked much after that battle, because it's been awkward with Naruto, what do you think about everything?"

"Hmm, I honestly don't know why he's acting like that. It looks like he saved our lives, and he figured out a little bit about his powers, but it doesn't really explain anything."

"What about the Kyuubi?"

"I always had a feeling he was hiding something big like that, now I know why everyone hated him so much. I don't agree with it, cause it's still my Naru when I look at him."

"Hn."

"And what about you Sasuke-kun, what do you think about the Kyuubi being inside Naru?" She involuntarily tensed. She didn't know what she would do if Sasuke didn't approve of Naruto anymore.

"Hn. I think all the adults are idiots." Sakura chuckled at this. _I guess that means that he's okay with Naru._

"I guess we'll talk to him when he's all ready to tell us. It doesn't seem like we should push anything, huh? Sakura wanted some sort of confirmation. She wanted to go bang on Naruto's door and ask him what the hell was going on, but knew she should. Sasuke seemed to sense the unease from her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"He'll tell us when he's ready. Right now all we can do is give him his space."

* * *

Ino managed to pick the lock quite easily. Although if she just tried, the door wasn't even locked. Sneaking inside, she looked around to see a cold empty apartment, in spite of how dark it was.

Naruto couldn't sleep, his mind was completely occupied as he twisted in bed, he felt Ino's chakra enter his apartment. He walked over to his door as she approached, and opened it as she was.

"AHH!" Ino felt her heart jump out of her chest.

Naruto cringed at the shriek. "Ino, calm down!"

"Sorry Naru, you scared the hell out of me!"

"Oh, sorry, I sensed you sneaking in." Ino was confused, she was sure she had snuck in very carefully. All that time spent pranking with Naruto honed her skills with stealth.

"Um, Naru..." Ino began speaking.

"Look Ino-chan. I know I promised I would tell you everything when I got back, but I just want to rest right now. It was a really long mission. Can you please see yourself out? Don't worry about the lock on the door, it doesn't work." Naruto walked back into his room and laid down.

He really didn't want to talk about his problems. As he tried to relax, he felt a weight on his bed, and before he could turn around, he felt a warm body lay next to him, and an arm wrapped around him.

"Ino-chan..."

"Look Naru, you don't have to tell me anything right now...I can tell how much you are hurting. I just want you to know that I'm here for you. Just go to sleep and we will talk tomorrow." She cuddled up into his back.

A few tears escaped as he closed his eyes.

* * *

The sun hit his eyes as he shifted in bed. He was extremely comfortable, which was surprising seeing the mood he has been in the last couple of days. Deciding that he should be awake, he opened his eyes and the sight shocked him.

She enjoyed cuddling. That was something Ino would never tell anyone, but she loved cuddling. Usually it was with her body pillows, but this particular morning, she was aware of 2 things. 1, Pillows aren't this warm, and 2, pillows don't move. So she opened her eyes.

They both opened their eyes at the same time, and as realization dawned upon them what had happened last night, they both blushed profusely as they sat up.

"Um..."

"Yeah...uh..." They were both stammering. Ino thought this was getting ridiculous and forced herself to calm down.

"Naru, I hope you feel a little bit better...I was really worried about you."

He looked at her and smiled. She always calmed him down and keep his mind off the stress that was his life. "I'm okay now Ino-chan. Thank you for spending the night with me."

Noticing the double meaning, they both blushed again.

"Ahem, Naru...what happened on the mission? It seems like you've been gone for months, not weeks."

"I know Ino-chan, it feels the same way for me too. I'm trying to handle everything that's happened." It was true. It seemed like months of experience was condensing itself to the few short weeks of the mission. Here was Ino, and he did owe her some sort of explanation, but the problem was, he didn't know where.

"Naru, whats wrong?" She didn't know what she could do for him. He seemed so hurt, so she placed her hands on his, the only gesture she could think of to show that she wanted him to lean on her for support.

"Everything..." Ino's eyes widened. She could tell he was having a hard time putting things together.

"Why don't you just start at the beginning?"

Naruto gave her a light smile. It seemed so simple, just start at the beginning and sort everything out that way.

"Ok...well it all started with us transporting our client, Tazuna, to the wave country."

* * *

Team 7 was walking towards the Wave Country. It was a uneventful trip, but it was nice to do a mission that was outside of Konoha. As they walked, Naruto 'sensed' someone ahead. He didn't know why, but he just knew.

"Kaka-sensei, there's some people ahead." Naruto walked over to his sensei and warn him.

"Hmm? How do you know that?" Kakashi didn't notice any movement at all.

"I don't know how I know, I just know. They're not as strong as you, but stronger than us." Everyone stopped and turned towards Naruto, wondering what he was talking about.

"How do you know that, Naru?"

Naruto scratched his head, "I don't know how I know, but I feel it. About 100 feet ahead of us, there's 2, I'm guess ninja's that are just standing there, it seems like. I only know that because there's no one else around, and they stick out like sore thumbs."

"So what should we do, sensei." Everyone was still skeptic about it, but Sakura knew to ask the leader for orders.

Naruto, instead, answered, "Why don't I make a few Kage Bunshins and Henge them into us and send them ahead. If something happens, we know I was right."

* * *

"So what happened?"

Naruto continued his story, "Well, it turns out they were transformed into a water puddle, I guess that's why I could sense them, but when we walked by, they attacked my clones and they all got dispelled. By the time we got there, they had ran off."

Ino had a nagging feeling, so she decided to ask, "How did you sense them Naru? Is that how you could tell I was in your place last night?"

Naruto nodded, "It seems because of how I gain my chakra, I seem to have developed the ability to sense things. It's like I feel their life force or something. It's kinda difficult to explain."

"Hmm, that's interesting."

"Yeah, Kaka-sensei has a sharingan eye of all things." Ino's eyes widened, "Don't you mean Sasuke?" She remembered that the Uchiha clan had the sharingan eyes as a kekkai genkai.

"Well, he does too, but that's for later, Kaka-sensei has one too, that's why he covers up his left eye."

"I see..."

"Well anyways, he said his eyes kinda see my chakra flow. During some of the trip after our attack with Zabuza, he showed me how to have better control of my chakra, even though it's not technically chakra that I use."

"Wait, wait Naru. You're saying bunch of things that I don't understand. Who's Zabuza, and what do you mean you don't use chakra?"

"Zabuza was the missing-nin that was hired to kill our client. It seems that we were hired to protect him from Zabuza and the person that hired him."

"That's not a C Ranked mission! Naru you could have died." Ino was scared for Naruto, but calmed herself down. He was here now, he wasn't killed or anything so it turned out okay, right?

"Yeah, we knew that, but I guess we were just eager to not fail a mission and didn't really see the danger. Anyways, I sensed Zabuza before he could ambush us, and Kaka-sensei managed to barely beat him. That's how we found out he had the sharingan."

"Oh ok. So what's up with your chakra and such?"

"Ah, well, the energy I use for my jutsu's aren't my chakra. The energy I absorb externally is what I use, and I can't really mold that the same way as everyone else can. In other words, I'm not drawing in my chakra, but I try to mold it as if I do, and that's why I always messed up jutsu's, like my bunshin and such."

"I see...so what is this energy that you DO use?"

"Well Kaka-sensei said it was 'Ki'. Since I have no other reference to it, I guess I'll call it that too."

"Ki, huh?"

"Yeah, well he had use do chakra control exercises, like tree walking, so I found out that I can draw in ki quicker with practice. I guess Sakura has a small chakra reserve, so she managed to master the training in one go."

"Wow Sakura is pretty good huh. What is tree walking?"

"Oh, it's where I use my ki to focus on my feet and walk up a tree. In order words, walking vertically."

"Wow, that sounds complicated."

"It was for me and Sasuke. I'm sure you could do it pretty easily."

"Why was it hard for Sasuke?" Ino didn't think Sasuke wasn't capable of doing something correctly the first time.

For the first time in a few days, Naruto chuckled, "That's what he thought too. But because he has a higher chakra reserve, it's harder to control. And since I have a huge reserve as well as not using my chakra, it was difficult for me too."

"That makes sense. So then what happened?"

"I guess I was excited with the training, so I over trained this one night and Sasuke had to drag me back to the house. I had overslept the next morning, which I guess was a good thing now." Naruto looked down. If he hadn't been there, Inari and Tsunami would have died.

"Why was it a good thing?"

"Because I overslept, they didn't think there would be a ninja there. So Gatou, the head guy in charge, sent a few swordsmen to try and kill Tazuna's family."

He started to clench his fist. It was pure luck that he was there. Ino didn't know what to do, she never had to deal with this.

"After I managed save them, I headed for the bridge to meet up with the team.

* * *

Naruto arrived on the bridge behind everyone. Before he could reach the rest of his team, 2 figures stood in his way.

"Hey, you're that orange brat that tricked us last time?" The 2 figures appeared in full view and upon inspection they were wearing gray cloaks with an armored gauntlet.

"Who the hell are you? Get out of my way." Naruto yelled at them, he had to get to his team.

"We're the demon brothers, Gozu and Meizu. You shouldn't be worried about your team. Zabuza-sama is going to kill them."

Naruto's eyes widened in fear. Their last fight had been pretty horrible. Only through his different ideas of tricking and deceiving did they win that fight without any major harm. Although Naruto had gotten stronger these past couple of days, this was a different fight, and he knew it.

Both brothers charged at Naruto straight on. Out numbering the kid 2 to 1, they severely underestimated him. Just as they both impaled Naruto with their claws, he disappeared.

"What the fuck? He disappeared?!" Gozu tried to look around, but a sharp pain hit his neck and he was knocked out cold.

"What?" Meizu looked over at his brother slumping over and jumped away from Naruto. _He's fast! _Crouching down to get ready to charge, he stopped with Naruto picked up his brother's unconscious body, and pulling out a kunai.

"What are you doing to Gozu!? Let him go." Naruto simply threw the body over to his brother. Meizu put his arms out in an attempt to safely catch his brother, but before he landed, Naruto suddenly appeared and punched in him the face.

As he was losing consciousness, he spotted Gozu's body where Naruto was standing and it dawned on him. The kid wasn't fast, he tricked us by doing the Kawarimi to confuse us. _That kid got us good._

Naruto quickly tied them up, then tied them together to ensure that they couldn't escape. Looking back towards the fight he saw a huge white looking dome. The dome was created using chakra, but he concentrated and felt 3 different chakras, all 3 he recognized.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! 2 clones appeared and ran up towards the dome.

"You guys have them?" As the 2 clones turned around and nodded, "Wait for my queue."

Naruto ran around the dome and found Tazuna standing by himself. Running up to him and grabbing his arm, he dragged Tazuna away from Kakashi towards the direction of his clones. Tazuna couldn't say anything as he was flying through the air.

"NOW!" Naruto yelled at the clones, as he ran past them. Naruto stopped and stood in front of Tazuna as his 2 clones Kawarimi'ed with Sakura and Sasuke. As they appeared, Naruto frowned at the sight.

Both Sakura and Sasuke had looked like porcupines. Needles protruded from all over them, including all their limbs.

_I still sense them, they're still alive, thank god._

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" _A single clone appeared and they both ran up to the unconscious teammates and they picked them up to carry them back to Tazuna.

"Tazuna-san, keep an eye on them." Tazuna just nodded and knelt over.

Naruto was mad, blood was dripping out of them. But he wasn't mad at the person that did this, he was mad at himself for not being able to protect them. Silently cursing under his breath, he just watched as the 2 clones in the dome dispersed and the ice dome jutsu was dropped.

A figure appeared with a mask and started walking towards Naruto. His eyes narrowed at the attempt of deception of the mask.

"Haku, I know it's you. Why are you doing this?"

"Impressive that you know it's me Naruto-kun." Haku took off his mask and tossed it aside, "I guess I don't need that anymore huh?"

"I asked you a question, Haku."

"I'm doing what Zabuza-san wants. You guys just happen to be in the way."

Naruto's facial expression dropped even further, "What happened in the forest, what was all that bullshit you fed me?"

Haku's face never changed, "It wasn't bullshit, I live to serve Zabuza-san, his dream is my dream."

"So your dream is to kill my friends?"

Haku's face actually dropped at this question, "Whatever and whoever stands in his way is my enemy."

Naruto's head snapped back up and turned around. _NO! Their chakra is getting too weak!_

"**You killed them!**" Naruto voice was getting feral. **"We could have worked all this shit out without death!"**

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun. That is the way of the ninja. We are tools to be used."

Naruto growled at that statement, "**NO! I'm not like that. You will pay for killing my friends."**

Red chakra was being emitted from Naruto's body. As it began to wrapped around Naruto, blue chakra also started to spiral around the current red one, and began melding together to a purple chakra. Haku already felt the killer intent that was coming off of Naruto and started to mold his Ice Mirrors.

"**No you don't!**" Naruto disappeared from view and his fist collided with the mirror shattering it.

Haku looked surprised at his speed and power. He tried to create more mirrors, to no avail. Anytime a mirror would try and mold itself, Naruto would already be there and with a simple punch, it would shatter.

Haku knew he was running out of chakra to continue this so he stopped. Naruto saw that Haku wasn't going to try anything else so he charged at Haku and delivered a devastating knee to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Haku fell to the ground clutching his stomach in agony. He couldn't breath and couldn't move. All he could do is wait for the death that was inevitably coming. He heard a loud chirping noise in the distance, and it got louder and louder, and then nothing. _Why hasn't he dealt me the killing blow?_

Haku looked up and saw Naruto's crying face. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"**I want to. I want to kill you so much, but I know it won't bring them back**." His face went from being completely angry to just sad. "I know you aren't a bad person, so I am going to let you live. And you are going to spend the rest of your life atoning for killing 2 of my precious people."

He landed a quick hit to Haku's neck knocking him out. He looked over at Tazuna and threw some rope over to him, "**Tie him up**." His feral voice was back, and he dashed off to where Kakashi was.

On Kakashi's side, he had just pulled his arm back out of Zabuza's chest where he stabbed him with his Chidori. He looked around and saw Naruto, still encase in a malicious purple chakra.

"Naruto, what is going on?" Kakashi was worried that the seal had broken. All he could feel from Naruto was an immense amount of killer intent and visible chakra that wasn't red like the Kyuubi's should be.

"**There's other people on the bridge. They want to kill us**." Naruto just stared at the group ahead. He saw the group get off the boat and piled on the bridge. Naruto disappeared from view, but Kakashi saw him jumping into the air towards the direction of the boat. He pulled his fist back and slammed it into the deck of the boat when he landed. The force of the blow split the ship in half and began to sink.

Naruto jumped back onto the bridge behind them this time. He could here them whisper amongst themselves, and heard the name _Gatou. _Naruto recognized the name and growled.

"**Where is Gatou!?**" Naruto demanded in the most menacing voice. He saw a small short man trying to hide among his men and recognized who it was.

He dashed at blinding speed, knocking everyone away, and grabbed Gatou by the neck. "**This is all your fault. It is all your fault my friends are dead.**"

All his men started running away. That amount of visible chakra and killer intent scared everyone and they started to run away, but they all stopped when they saw a mob of the villagers.

Back to Naruto, he squeezed his hands, choking the man. Feeling that Gatou was desperately fighting because his life was draining from him, Naruto frowned and snapped his neck, killing him in that moment.

Naruto tossed him aside and began walking back across the bridge. As he looked up, Kakashi and Tazuna helping both Sasuke and Sakura back up. His chakra dissipated and his eyes widened as he realized that everyone had seen him. They had all seen what he was.

* * *

"Naru..." Ino was just hugging him, trying to comfort him in any way.

"Kakashi-sensei, started to ask me questions with them in front of me and they found out my secret." Naruto still had his head lowered.

"Ino-chan... Do you know what happened 12 years ago on October 10th?"

"Umm...wasn't that the day that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes, and that was the Yondaime defeated it."

Ino just nodded to this fact as it was common knowledge, "Ino-chan, he defeated it, he didn't kill it."

"What? What do you mean? What's the difference?" Ino didn't know where this was going.

"Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi by sealing it inside of a infant at the time." Ino's eyes widened.

"Ino, I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me. That's my secret."

Several moments passed, but Ino still didn't let Naruto go from her embrace. This was a huge secret and Naruto had trusted her enough to tell her.

"I don't know why you didn't think you couldn't tell me this secret Naru, but I won't ever hate you."

"Ino. That purple chakra. When I was so mad, I just wanted to hurt those people that hurt my friends. I was in complete control. I knew what I was doing. I knew that I had killed."

"Naru, it isn't your fault. You did what any person would do, you just wanted someone to pay. But you can't think like that, both Sasuke and Sakura are alive and well."

"I know Ino," she frowned because he stopped using 'chan', "but I knew what was happening, am I the Kyuubi?"

:)


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